Terminal Station,

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

, is a railroad station that was built in 1916, and is located on 5th St. at the end of Cherry St. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by architect

Alfred T. Fellheimer Alfred T. Fellheimer (March 9, 1875 – 1959) was an American architect. He began his career with Reed & Stem, where he was lead architect for Grand Central Terminal. Beginning in 1928, his firm Fellheimer & Wagner designed Cincinnati Union ...

(1875–1959), prominent for his design of

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1903. The station building is part of the Macon Historic District, which is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. While no longer an active train station, it has been the location of the Macon Transit Authority bus hub since 2014.

Early history

Col. Robert L. Berner, a prominent Macon attorney and former state legislator, filed a petition on September 28, 1912, with the Georgia Railroad Commission, asking that the railroads calling at Macon be required to erect an adequate union passenger station in Macon. His efforts culminated in the construction of Terminal Station, which was officially opened in 1916. The Terminal Station building has a limestone exterior, with the main lobby and waiting areas having floors and walls of pink Tennessee marble. Terminal Station encompassed 13 acres and was owned by the Macon Terminal Company. By the mid-1920s, the station dispatched an estimated 100 arrivals and departures per day. The station was served by the Georgia Railroad,

Central of Georgia Railway The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was cons ...

Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad The Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad (reporting mark MDS) was chartered in 1885 as the Macon and Dublin Railroad. It was built to connect its namesake towns, Macon and Dublin. Eventually, it became a 96-mile short line operating between Macon ...

, and Southern Railway. Terminal Station, at night, Macon, Georgia (8368122138)

The last trains running from there were the ''Royal Palm'' (1970) and the ''Nancy Hanks'' (1971). The final run of the ''Nancy Hanks'' on April 30, 1971, ended 125 years of intercity rail service in Macon. A bronze statue of

William Morrill Wadley William Morrill Wadley (November 12, 1813 – August 10, 1882) was a railroad engineer, and the superintendent of several railroad projects in the Southern United States in the mid-19th century. Life and career Wadley was born on November 12, ...

was erected outside the station in 1885, three years after his death.''Survival of the Fittest: William Morrill Wadley and the Central of Georgia Railroad's Coming of Age, 1866-1882'', Dorothy Houseal Stewart (1994)

Notable trains

Central of Georgia The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was cons ...

: ** ''

Nancy Hanks Nancy Hanks Lincoln (February 5, 1784 – October 5, 1818) was the mother of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Her marriage to Thomas Lincoln also produced a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Thomas Jr. When Nancy and Thomas had been married for j ...

'': Atlanta - Savannah The Central also operated a Birmingham - Columbus - Savannah night train through the station in the early 1950s. *Central of Georgia and

Louisville & Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...

: ** '' Flamingo'': Cincinnati - Knoxville - Atlanta - Jacksonville ** '' Southland'': Chicago - Cincinnati - Knoxville - Atlanta - St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Miami * Frisco and

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

: **''

Kansas City-Florida Special Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the we ...

'': Kansas City - Memphis - Birmingham - Atlanta - Jacksonville *Southern: **''Florida Sunbeam'': Chicago, Detroit & Cleveland - Miami **''

Ponce de Leon Ponce may refer to: *Ponce (surname) * *Ponce, Puerto Rico, a city in Puerto Rico ** Ponce High School ** Ponce massacre, 1937 * USS ''Ponce'', several ships of the US Navy *Manuel Ponce, a Mexican composer active in the 20th century * British sla ...

'': Cincinnati - Atlanta - Jacksonville **'' Royal Palm'': Cincinnati - Atlanta - Jacksonville

Recent history

After almost sixty years of service, Terminal Station closed in 1971, and the building remained unused. In 1982, it was purchased by

Georgia Power Company Georgia Power is an electric utility headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was established as the Georgia Railway and Power Company and began operations in 1902 running streetcars in Atlanta as a successor to the Atlanta Consolida ...

and utilized as offices until the 1990s. The City of Macon purchased the Terminal Station in 2002, and funded the restoration of the building. The city council voted in 2014 to give the property to the Macon Transit Authority.

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...

announced in July 2019 that it was moving its existing operations in Macon to the Terminal Station. The stated goal for the move was to bring passengers more local transportation options, namely the Macon Transit Authority's bus hub. In 2020, the Terminal Station was used as a filming location for scenes from the award-winning

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

series The Underground Railroad.

Brosnan Yard

Occupying the former Central of Georgia shop complex just southwest of the Terminal Station is Norfolk Southern's Brosnan Yard. The rail yard was opened in 1967 and named after William Brosnan, then president of Southern Railway. In 2020, it was announced that Brosnan Yard was one of several yards being idled, as part of Norfolk Southern's transition to

precision railroading Precision railroading or precision scheduled railroading (PSR) is a concept in freight railroad operations pioneered by E. Hunter Harrison in 1993, and adopted by nearly every North American Class I railroad. It shifts the focus from older pract ...

References

External links

Official website
{{National Register of Historic Places Railway stations in the United States opened in 1916 Railway stations closed in 1975 Former railway stations in Georgia (U.S. state) Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) 1916 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 1975 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state) National Register of Historic Places in Bibb County, Georgia Railway stations in Macon–Bibb County, Georgia Macon Macon Repurposed railway stations in the United States